What Jesus Did

And [the soldiers] brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means "Place of the Skull"). They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it.
Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece.


—Mark 15:22-24 NLT

Key Thought​

The cross was a Roman tool of torture, shame, and humiliation. Jesus and his cross were taken to a hill known as the "Place of the Skull." Not only did the hill look...

 

A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside [as Jesus was led away to be crucified], and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. (Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)

—Mark 15:21 NLT

Key Thought​

Jesus told his followers, including those of us who follow him today, that we need to pick up our crosses and follow him (Mark 8:34). While Simon was forced to physically carry Jesus' cross to Golgotha, he also apparently picked up...

 

When [the soldiers] were finally tired of mocking [Jesus], they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

—Mark 15:20 NLT

Key Thought​

"When [the soldiers] were finally tired of mocking [Jesus] ..." What a sad and sobering commentary. Jesus was not a person in the minds of his sadistic persecutors, but a toy for them to use to amuse themselves. Mockery, derision, and brutality were their purposes in the crucifixion...

 

The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor's headquarters (called the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment. They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. Then they saluted him and taunted, "Hail! King of the Jews!" And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship.

—Mark 15:16-19 NLT

Key Thought​

The purpose of crucifixion wasn't just to kill...

 

So to pacify the crowd [that wanted Jesus to be crucified], Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

—Mark 15:15 NLT

Key Thought​

Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, yet gives in totally to the wishes of the mob — he first has Jesus scourged ("flogged with a lead-tipped whip") and then turns Jesus over to be crucified. Why does he do it? Pilate has to keep Rome happy by...

 

[The crowd shouted that they wanted Jesus crucified.] "Why?" Pilate demanded. "What crime has he committed?"
But the mob roared even louder, "Crucify him!"


—Mark 15:14 NLT

Key Thought​

Why was Jesus crucified? He was innocent. He had done no crime. He had not committed a single sin. Mark wanted us to know that the crowd had lost its collective mind and was thirsty for blood — Jesus' blood. Jesus did not die because he had done wrong. He was crucified because those who hated...

 

[After the crowd called for the release of Barabbas,] Pilate asked them, "Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted back, "Crucify him!"


—Mark 15:12-13 NLT

Key Thought​

The sickening answer to Pilate's question reverberates through time — "Crucify him!" How horrible this is! Yet as much as evil people are responsible for Jesus' death, his death is also God's plan. However, we should feel the emotional and spiritual agony of the...

 

[After Pilate asked the crowd if he should release Jesus,] the leading priests stirred up the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas instead of Jesus.

—Mark 15:11 NLT

Key Thought​

Pilate knew that the leading priests had Jesus arrested because of envy (Mark 15:10). Now the priests are behind the scenes orchestrating the events and stirring up the mob for Pilate to release Barabbas. Let's watch their behavior throughout this story and realize how easily we might slip from an...

 

"Would you like me to release to you this 'King of the Jews'?" Pilate asked [the crowd]. (For he realized by now that the leading priests had arrested Jesus out of envy.)

—Mark 15:9-10 NLT

Key Thought​

So often, people make their decisions to honor Jesus based on the opinion of the crowd around them. Pilate, though armed with Rome's military might, is a puppet in the hands of Jesus' enemies because he is willing to let the crowd decide what he will do with Jesus. What about us...

 

Now it was the governor's custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner — anyone the people requested. One of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas, a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising. The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual.

—Mark 15:6-8 NLT

Key Thought​

Jesus' ministry was all about release — release from the power of death, release from the power of disease, release from the power of the devil...